Bioactives American Corporation, a specialty ingredient company that develops and sells formulations for health and wellness, announced the first GRAS- (generally recognized as safe) certified S. oblonga herbal extract, Salsulin, which is based on the Ayurvedic herb used for blood sugar management.

S. oblonga, which comes from the salacia oblonga root in India and Sri Lanka,  is a safe, non-toxic herbal extract that has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for the oral treatment of diabetes, by helping naturally regulate blood sugar and insulin. Bioactives' Salsulin is manufactured using cGMP requirements and can be used as a medical foods at a dose of 480 mg/60 kg body weight/day. Because of its GRAS status, it can be used as a food additive in conventional foods.

S. oblanga has was evaluated in 2007 by a randomized, double-blind crossover study that looked at the effect S. oblonga extract had on postprandial glycemia and insulinemia in 61 patients with type 2 diabetes after eating a high carbohydrate meal (Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jul;86(1):124-30). In the study, participants consumed one of three meals: a control liquid meal, the control meal combined with 240 mg of S. oblonga extract and a control meal combined with 480 mg of S. oblonga extract. The study concluded that the participants consuming the S. oblonga extract in both amounts had lower acute glycemia and insulinemia.